Chana and Chana Dal words added to Oxford English Dictionary

Rupali Pruthi

Jun 28, 2017 13:37 IST

The words Chana and Chana Dal were on 27 June 2017 added to the Oxford English Dictionary (OED). 'Chana' means Chickpeas and 'Chana Dal' stands for split chickpea lentils.

With this, these Indian food essentials Chickpeas (chana) and the split chickpea lentils (chana dal) join the vast list of more than 600 other words and phrases that have been included in its quarterly update of the Oxford English Dictionary.

Other entries in the Oxford English Dictionary

• The other prominent new entries in the OED include a batch of tennis-related words like "Forced Error".

• A slang 'Bagel' has also been added which refers to a score in a set of six games to love, as there is similarity of the numeral zero to the shape of a bagel.

• A new sense of 'woke', which was shortlisted for 'Word of the Year', has also been added. It means alert to racial or social discrimination and injustice.

• OED update also includes a new related sense of the verb 'academise' which means to convert a school into such an academy.

• The latest update also included the word 'footless' which means footless drunk, an alternative to the more familiar 'legless'.

•'To have a canary' or 'to lose one's composure' have also found their way into the OED's new list of words.

• A new usage of 'thing' has also been added into the new list. This new sense of 'thing' is often used in questions conveying surprise or doubt, such as 'how can that be a thing?'

• In the scientific words, 'Zyzzyva+' has become the latest entry in the dictionary. It means a set of tropical weevils native to South America and typically found on or near palm trees.

• Other remarkable entries in the latest update are swimmer (sperm) and son of a bachelor (a euphemistic alternative to 'son of a bitch').

In 2016, Oxford Dictionary announced 'post- truth' as its Word of the Year. Since then, the huge increase in usage of the words has motivated lexicographers to add them to the latest edition of 'OED'.

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